National Endowment for the Arts awards $30,000 for The Right Brain Initiative

PORTLAND, ORE — National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects across the country in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017. Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $30,000 to The Right Brain Initiative, the arts integration program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

“The arts reflect the vision, energy, and talent of America’s artists and arts organizations,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support organizations such as The Right Brain Initiative, in serving their communities by providing excellent and accessible arts experiences.”

“We are grateful for the continued support from the NEA. This funding helps us build teachers’ capacity to engage all learners through the arts and develop students’ creative and critical thinking skills,” expressed Marna Stalcup, RACC’s Director of Arts Education.

This award will support Right Brain’s innovative, systemic, and equitable approach to arts integrated education in Portland area elementary and middle schools. Its professional development model will equip an estimated 1,475 teachers, arts specialists, principals and teaching artists in the 2017-18 school year with strategies to promote students’ 21st Century Skills, and create environments where they thrive academically, socially and artistically. Through the collaboration of trained teaching artists and classroom teachers, the program will serve nearly 30,000 students in 70 schools across the region.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring17. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov

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The Right Brain Initiative is a sustainable partnership of public schools, local government, foundations, businesses and the cultural community working to transform learning through the arts for all K-8 students in the Portland metro area. Now in its ninth year, Right Brain serves 68 schools and approximately 27,500 students from urban, suburban and rural communities in the Portland area. In fall of 2014, Right Brain released data connecting the program to an above-average increase in student test scores, with greatest results for English Language Learners. Right Brain is a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Operating partners include Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington (Residency Partner), Portland State University Center for Student Success (Research & Evaluation Partner), and Deborah Brzoksa of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Professional Development Consultant). Read more online at TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) provides grants for artists, nonprofit organizations and schools in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties; manages an internationally acclaimed public art program; raises money and awareness for the arts through Work for Art; convenes forums, networking events and other community gatherings; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance for artists; and oversees a program to integrate arts and culture into the standard curriculum in public schools through The Right Brain Initiative. RACC values a diversity of artistic and cultural experiences and is working to build a community in which everyone can participate in culture, creativity and the arts. For more information visit racc.org.